The Squad is a sequel to The Tryout, which dealt with Christina trying out for the cheerleading squad in her small Texas town. Her mother is white and her father is Thai, and Christina is one of the few Asian American people in the town, which leads to bullying and a persistent sense of being different. She struggles with being mixed race and the idea that she’s just half of As The Squad opens, Christina is starting eighth grade and is feeling confident and good about herself. She has a cheerful personality that is able to carry her through her difficulties, and she has a solid group of friends. Everything seems to be going amazingly! She and her friends Megan and Leanne decide to try out for the squad again in the hopes that they’ll make it this time. This causes tension between her and her artsy friends, and Christina feels torn between sports and art, and the groups of friends she has in both camps. Christina also has to grapple with her feelings about being mixed race and, worst of all, overhearing her parents discussing that they want to get divorced. Eighth grade goes from being the best time ever to being a tumultuous series of ups and downs.
I honestly think I liked this better than the first one as it had more emotional depth and narrative interest to me (although the first one is great too!). It seemed like this one was longer, and there were a lot of storylines, but it never felt too overstuffed or overwhelming. The narrative remained clear and all of the characters were distinctive, which is an accomplishment for a graphic novel with this large a cast of children and adults. The emotional arc and the messaging was well done. You could really see Christina’s growth and her journey from being cheerful but deliberately oblivious to her parents’ struggles, to her learning how to handle the pain head on and how to trust and rely on others who could help her. It was a balanced look at divorce as well, with her parents working to be supportive of her pain while trying to be clear with her that they were not going to get back together, but that this would be better for all of them in the long run. It didn’t sugar coat the difficult time Christina has, but it shows the hopeful and positive side after working through a large upheaval. As a mixed race person who has had struggles around cultural messaging of what it means and if I’m supposed to choose a side or act in certain ways, I really liked the scene where her cousin tells her that she doesn’t have to pick one half and that she is all of them. It was very well put and I appreciated the representation! The art is cartoony, expressive, and has an impressive amount of detail that conveys a fully formed world. The writer and artist seem to have worked well together to create a very cohesive work. I’d definitely recommend this for the middle grade reader, especially those who might be dealing with the fallout of a divorce.